Session on:Editing the Early Modern: Women as Writers, Editors and Scholars

We are proposing a panel exploring the challenges and discoveries involved in central aspects of editing early modern literature: when scholars edit the works of early modern women writers; and when scholars investigate the history of the first generations of women scholars and editors of this period.

Questions concerning editing practices or editing practitioners might focus on but are not limited to: Archival Research: Are there gender differences in how the work of women writers is stored, accessed, locatable; What particular research and editing skills are being developed to address these differences; What advice do we have for the next generation of editors of women writers of the early modern period? Editing Decisions: How have gender differences (of both the writer and the editor) affected decisions about copy text, modernizing, what to include in an introduction; Does Jerome McGann's argument that editors should give less attention to the "author's final intentions" and more to the "historically developing institutions of literary production" suggest new contexts for situating "new" writers; How have editing practices developed for editing Shakespeare served when editing women writers of the early modern period? Disseminating edited texts: How is locating a publisher effected by gender difference (of both writer and editor); What kinds of requests, corrections, additions are being asked by publishers of women's writing and by women editors; What kinds of marketing approach are successful; What kind of audience do publishers seek? The engendering of the community of scholars of early modern literature: what was the relationship between the official, academic institutions and the non-affiliated (independent) female scholar; what was the benefit accrued to male and female scholars and authors from female editing?

Paper or abstracts should be submitted to either Ann Hurley (at ahurley_at_wagner.edu) or Chanita Goodblatt (at chanita_at_bgu.ac.il) by 15 November. If you need to mail or fax, please contact Ann Hurley by email for those addresses.